Raid Pyrenees.

velopeloton

Col du Peyresourde.
I think a lot of you will know this guy, Ivan from Dublin.


Col du Port.

rughdh

Thanks velopeloton and chapeau blorg!

Jumpy

Is blorg wearing white socks with sandals?

My god man.

Jumpy

Oh yeah, well done on the mountain climb as well

The tax man

Left or right?
Blorgs Garmin goes on the blink again, so he has to ask for directions.:D

Chips Lovell

Riding a pony is cheating.

Captain Havoc

He's not wearing a helmet

But he can put the chapeau I'm giving him there instead.

rottenhat

I preusme the lads are back - where's the report? Blorg? Barrabus?

blorg

Just back yesterday, that was the best thing I ever did on a bike. Did it with Barrabus and it was a real team effort. He is driving back across France at the moment.

I actually had a helmet, just took it off for the climbs, back on for the descents. It attached on to the bag I was carrying on the back (kindly lent by emty: )



Paddy runs www.velopeloton.com and although we were doing it entirely self-supported, carrying all our stuff (and washing it every night) I could certainly see the appeal of having someone else carry your luggage, I did a spin into Spain Friday afternoon with it off and 100km around the Cap de Creus National Park on Sunday and you could certainly feel it was gone... Paddy was also very helpful to us even though we weren't his customers, really appreciate that.

I'll post up an account later, have a fair few photos... It was a spectacular cycle, will certainly be doing it again (maybe the other direction next time.) There is an explanation for the socks, I would not normally be wearing them with the sandals...

dexty

Wow Paddy, great site, great life, that's what u call living the dream!

will definitely be paying u a visit some day!

rottenhat

blorg wrote: »

There is an explanation for the socks, I would not normally be wearing them with the sandals...

let me guess...you accidentally used olive oil instead of sunblock on the first day and wound up with massive burns all over your feet?

dexty

velopeloton wrote: »

Col du Peyresourde.
I think a lot of you will know this guy, Ivan from Dublin.


Col du Port.

Ivan?????
Is that not Matt? see attached?

barrabus

that was a great trip alright.
We had an epic the first day; we were delayed by a very slow lunch and then added two extra cols to the raid - because we like hardship :rolleyes:. We climbed the savagely steep Marie Blanc at dusk with out having had a proper meal in about 5 hours, we then descended in the dark with the aid of Blorg's light to a town with no hotel rooms available ..... which meant a little backward detour and a very late finish .. I was shattered on the Col d’Aubisque the morning after and hung on to blorg's wheel on the drag to the bottom of the Tourmalet . (Thanks blorg).

My mojo returned on the Tourmalet and the rest of the trip was .. well no where near as hard. . but still a good challenge. I think we did 202 km the first day, around 120 the second day, followed by two days of 170 or so and then 80 ks on the morning of day five to finish with a couple of hours to spare on the 100 hour limit.
I think we did 20 cols in all, our high point being 2115m on the Tourmalet. Toughest climb for me ..... either the Marie Blanc or the Col d’Aubisque .. the main reason I found these two so hard was fuel related me thinks.

The Col de Portet D’Aspet and the Marie Blanc are two seriously steep climbs steeper than any other cols I have climbed in France or Spain.

The raid gets a 4 star recommendation as a trip .... we did it very successfully unsupported with minimal gear on full racing bikes. I can see the advantage of being supported namely not having to delay organising food and snacks / not carrying bags / being able to sort out bad mechanicals if they arise.

redmenace1

[quote=barrabus;
The raid gets a 4 star recommendation as a trip .... we did it very successfully unsupported with minimal gear on full racing bikes. I can see the advantage of being supported namely not having to delay organising food and snacks / not carrying bags / being able to sort out bad mechanicals if they arise.[/quote]

I did it supported and it was hard so well done on the unsupported bit. In fact give urself 5 stars!!
One of the benefits of your way is that you are your own master.


Wonderful part of the world, just as nice as Alps imho.
If you would like to share ur advice on stops please do so as I plan to go again, maybe next year.

rughdh

barrabus wrote: »

that was a great trip alright.
We had an epic the first day; we were delayed by a very slow lunch and then added two extra cols to the raid - because we like hardship :rolleyes:. We climbed the savagely steep Marie Blanc at dusk with out having had a proper meal in about 5 hours, we then descended in the dark with the aid of Blorg's light to a town with no hotel rooms available ..... which meant a little backward detour and a very late finish .. I was shattered on the Col d’Aubisque the morning after and hung on to blorg's wheel on the drag to the bottom of the Tourmalet . (Thanks blorg).

My mojo returned on the Tourmalet and the rest of the trip was .. well no where near as hard. . but still a good challenge. I think we did 202 km the first day, around 120 the second day, followed by two days of 170 or so and then 80 ks on the morning of day five to finish with a couple of hours to spare on the 100 hour limit.
I think we did 20 cols in all, our high point being 2115m on the Tourmalet. Toughest climb for me ..... either the Marie Blanc or the Col d’Aubisque .. the main reason I found these two so hard was fuel related me thinks.

The Col de Portet D’Aspet and the Marie Blanc are two seriously steep climbs steeper than any other cols I have climbed in France or Spain.

The raid gets a 4 star recommendation as a trip .... we did it very successfully unsupported with minimal gear on full racing bikes. I can see the advantage of being supported namely not having to delay organising food and snacks / not carrying bags / being able to sort out bad mechanicals if they arise.

Hats off to you both and thanks for the report barrabus. Just did one of those climbs (with ultra-granny gearing) and it nearly killed me.